SpaceX has spent years transforming the space industry as a private company. Now, it has taken its capabilities public, in hopes for even more growth. In this edition, we take a look at the SpaceX IPO and what it could mean for the company, its investors, and the broader market. We break down how an IPO works, the opportunities and risks for investors, and what has made this public offering different from all those that have come before it.

June 12, 2026, marks a monumental and highly anticipated day in IPO history: SpaceX debuted on the Nasdaq stock exchange. After months of work and under the advisory of leading bank Goldman Sachs, SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., listed on the stock market under the ticker $SPCX. It opened at $150 per share, above its IPO price of $135 due to high demand by investors. The firm raised approximately $75 billion by Saudi Aramco in 2022—granting the corporation a historically high valuation of $1.77 trillion, making it the largest IPO of all time.

Founded in 2002, infamous billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk created the aerospace company with the goal of decreasing the cost of space travel and, ultimately, figuring out how to safely transport people to Mars to enable colonization. The company designs, manufactures and launches rockets and aircrafts; its most notable and revolutionary accomplishment has been the creation of the Falcon 9, the first orbital-class rocket suited for routine reuse. Beyond its work in rocket manufacturing, SpaceX operates the Starlink satellite constellation—comprised of over 10,000 low-orbit satellites—serving internet to millions of customers on a global scale. Though it had an impressive track record, the company decided to go public to raise capital to fund expansion and long-term projects.

Sources: Stock Market Watch, Investing, Zacks, CNBC

When a company is privately owned, buying a piece of it is usually reserved for a small group of investors. Founders, employees, VC and PE firms, and other private investors can earn shares, but your average investor cannot simply open their Robinhood account and buy some. An Initial Public Offering, or IPO changes that.

An IPO is the process in which a private company offers shares of its stock to the public for the first time. This allows investors to buy and sell their shares on a public stock exchange, with equity changing hands from private to public markets. In exchange for giving up a portion of its ownership, the company gains access to a much larger pool of potential investors and capital. After the IPO, thousands or even millions of investors can own shares in the company. The company gets a new source of capital, while existing shareholders gain access to a publicly traded market where they can eventually sell their shares.

Going public is not as simple as listing a stock on an exchange, or the famous tradition of ringing the opening bell after the listing ceremony. The company must first disclose extensive financial and operational information to investors. This is typically done through an S-1 registration statement, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investment banks also play a critical role in the process, helping structure the company’s capital stack, determining how many shares to sell, marketing the offering to investors, and establishing an initial offering price.

The initial offering price is arguably the most important piece that fits into the greater puzzle of launching an IPO. This is the price that shares are first sold to investors at, on the primary market. Once the stock begins trading publicly, the stock can then be sold to other retail investors on the secondary market, which takes over from there. An IPO can be such a significant event, because for the first time a market is putting a continuously changing price on a company that previously had no publicly traded stock. Supply and demand can take the reins and cause the trading price to rapidly fluctuate above or below the original IPO price.

For companies, an IPO provides access to new capital and liquidity for existing shareholders. However, this comes with greater disclosure, scrutiny, and the pressure of constant public valuation. For investors, it offers the opportunity to buy into a company as it is launched into the public markets. This can distinguish extreme high-profile private companies as particularly compelling investment opportunities. Few companies fit that description quite like SpaceX.

Sources: Charles Schwab

SpaceX has growth potential, but investors are paying for what it could become, not what it earns today. At around $148 a share, SpaceX is worth about $2.04 trillion. That's roughly 89x trailing revenue of $23.04 billion, for a company that lost $8.89 billion over the same period. The average price target is $222, but targets range from $140 to $450, and MoffettNathanson has a Neutral rating with a $142 target. At this price, the market is already assuming Starship, Starlink Mobile, and the AI business all work. If one of them slips, there's a lot of room to fall into.

The float is the other big near-term risk. SpaceX IPO'd with only about 4.3% of its share's tradable, and that scarcity has helped hold up the price. It won't last. After the September 24 release, roughly 2.6 billion shares are tradable. Another 328 million unlock on October 9, and another 328 million around October 24. Then the biggest single release comes two trading days after Q3 earnings in early November: about 1.3 billion shares, or 28% of the main lockup pool. That lifts tradable supply by roughly 75%, to about 4.5 billion shares, or around a third of the company. The rest of the 180-day lockup expires December 8, and Musk's roughly 6.4 billion shares stay locked until June 2027. Eligible doesn't mean sold, but the releases come every few weeks, so there's a steady drip of new supply that could keep a lid on the stock through year end.

Who holds these shares matters even more than how many there are. Most belong to employees and early investors who got them through equity grants or at private-market prices well below todays, so they're sitting on large gains. Before the IPO, their only way out was SpaceX's limited tender offers. Now years of pent-up demand for liquidity hit the market in a few months. For many employees, SpaceX stock is most of their net worth, so they'll sell to diversify, pay taxes on vested stock, or fund big purchases. That isn't a bad sign about the business, but the stock still must absorb it. It can also look like one. Heavy selling by the people who know the company best can read as a lack of confidence, and since rank-and-file employees don't report their trades, the market can't tell who is selling or why. Liquidity also creates a risk of retention. Locked-up equity has helped keep top engineers at SpaceX. Once it's liquid, some will cash out and leave, which could slow Starship and AI development. Any new stock SpaceX grants would add more dilution for public shareholders.

The fundamentals haven't given much cover yet. SpaceX reports three segments: Space, Connectivity, and AI. In Q2 2026, only Connectivity (mostly Starlink) made an operating profit, at $1.656 billion. Space and AI combined lost about $1.8 billion. AI did turn positive on adjusted EBITDA at $1.146 billion, but that number leaves out $1.885 billion of depreciation on the hardware it's buying. Capex hit $18.4 billion, with about 86% going to AI infrastructure. SpaceX has about $100 billion in cash and securities, so it can keep spending for now. Eventually that spending has to earn a return.

AI revenue also leans on one customer. Anthropic is set to pay $1.25 billion a month through May 2029. But either side can walk away with 90 days' notice. SpaceX's own reporting reflects this. The $14.1 billion in contracted sales it disclosed only counts the non-cancellable portion of its cloud deals. Losing a customer this size would leave a big hole in AI revenue. Starship is the key execution risk. V3 Starlink and V2 Mobile satellites can't launch on Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy, so delays or failures would stall several growth plans at once. The July flight that deployed 20 V3 satellites was real progress, but high launch cadence and full reusability are still unproven. SpaceX also generally doesn't insure its rockets or satellites, so any failure hits it directly. Smaller risks add up too. Buying Cursor at a $60 billion value would mean roughly 405 million new shares, and walking away would cost about $10 billion in fees. Total debt and finance leases are around $39 billion after a $25 billion bond deal, and interest was $629 million in Q2 alone. Musk controls about 82% of the vote, so public shareholders have little say. Starlink ARPU also fell 22% year over year to $66 as growth shifts to cheaper plans and international markets. Even so, subscriber counts can keep climbing while revenue per customer stays under pressure.

Overall, SpaceX is priced for near-perfect execution across space, connectivity, and AI. Its float is about to grow sharply, and most of its growth plans need heavy spending now while depending on technology and contracts that could take years to pay off.

Sources: SEC, Yahoo Finance, Pure Power Picks, Earnings Transcript